Bringing the crack since December 2003

Silver Age Wonder Woman

This is my last Silver Age post. Tomorrow it's back to the Golden Age.

Golden Age Steven Trevor was a cool guy. He wasn't in the least intimidated by the fact that his girlfriend could overpower him with one hand tied behind her back (which it often was), he thought she was the bee's knees. Plus he did plenty of heroic stuff on his own, without any superpowers.

Silver Age Steven Trevor, however, was a dick.

These are from Wonder Woman #130, 1962, 30 pages long. You can see a few more scans from this issue here, but all the scans I posted here I did myself. The story's basically about how the Amazing Amazon gets fed up with the way Steven Trevor treats her badly as Diana Prince.

She tells her mother about it.

What, don't all sovereigns have secret identities as foot soldiers in their own armies?

Also, notice that there's been no indication that Hercules is dating the "secret identity" queen (cunningly disguised, as you see). So basically she's pissed at him for telling someone else how terrific she is.

Okay, if my girlfriend suddenly sprouted a second head, I think I'd freak out too.

So Wonder Woman invites Steve to go to a carnival with her and plants the mirage mirrors there before they arrive.

Naturally, her temporary malformation proves to be useful in fighting crime!

The next mirror makes her appear abnormally tall and skinny and that form also turns out to be useful in fighting the random crimes that happen to pass by. Then:

This is the earliest instance I know of the oft-attempted but never successfully completed Superman/Wonder Woman pairing. (Note: If you know of any others, I'd appreciate the issue numbers. Thanks!)

Wondy has the BLOOD OF INNOCENTS dripping around her mouth. Steve finds this sexy.

God, Superman looks fugly. So does Di.

And Hippolyta. My mind couldn't help going:

"Oh yes, Hercules treated me like that too Diana. Then he raped me and stole my girdle. Watch out, Steve might do that to you. Drive him off my turning really fat or growing an extra head. That should do the trick on driving away the little douche."

My ex-husband claimed that because of Diana Prince and Barbara Gordon on their respective TV shows, he developed a fetish for women in glasses. He can't shake the idea that underneath them, they're wearing skintight outfits and boots.

I think Golden Age Steve Trevor would go on about Wonder Woman to Diana, too. Though since Golden Age Steve Trevor wasn't a dick, I'm willing to believe he was just so smitten with Wonder Woman he couldn't stop talking about her to all his friends, one of whom was Diana. So it went from "I'd rather be on a date with Woman Woman, who I'm in love with, than going out platonicly with you," to "I'd rather be on a date with Wonder Woman than on a date with you because she's much hotter." I've probably said enough stupid things to women that I should give Steve some leeway here, but raving about Wonder Woman's "knockout figure" to Diana seems like crossing a line.

Also, I think Golden Age Steve Trevor apologized to Diana for being a jerk at least once.

I see Golden Age Steve as more of a lovably clueless lunkhead when it came to Diana, rather than an out-and-out insensitive jerk as he's portrayed here. He DID take Diana out a few times, and he always kinda suspected that she MIGHT be Wonder Woman, so his occasional bouts of rudeness struck me as more symptoms of 'is she or isn't she?' frustration than actual caddishness.

So basically, this whole story is an exercise in 'I'll show 'im!', and then she does. Would have been kinda nice if there were, y'know, a few COMPLICATIONS thrown in. Still, the guy deserved it, the cad. Who the hell dates someone and then does nothing but talk about someone else? What's the point of the date? He could have just as easily dressed a mannequin up as Wondy and let the whole thing run its course in the privacy of his apartment - he still wouldn't have gotten any further with the actual WW, and he wouldn't have a P.O'd Diana on his hands.

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